Eyewitness News
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — More than 80 international NGOs, businesses, and high profile personalities have announced their full support for a campaign to stop oil drilling in The Bahamas and see a permanent ban enacted on all fossil fuel exploration anywhere in the country.
Grass-roots coalition Our Islands, Our Future yesterday sent a letter to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis underscoring the rapidly growing list of regional and global entities that have joined forces with local drilling opponents.
The list includes hugely influential global NGOs like Oceana, Surfrider Foundation, Waterkeeper Alliance, Earthjustice, the Rainforest Action Network, and Friends of the Earth, along with many others.
Also signing on is Mission Blue, led by a renowned marine biologist, explorer, and author Dr Sylvia Earle.
Earle is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and was named Time Magazine’s first Hero for the Planet in 1998.
Earlier letters to Minnis outlined the coalition’s concerns about the severe threat posed by offshore oil drilling to the already fragile economy and ecology of The Bahamas.
It also pointed out that an online petition calling for a permanent oil exploration ban had surpassed 40,000 signatures.
However, the coalition said none of the letters received a response. Read more >>